Event Portals
  • 17 Nov 2023
  • 6 minute read
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Event Portals

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Article Summary

Slate provides two example event portals that can be imported using Suitcase and edited in an institution's database. These portals are configured to provide varying degrees of functionality for students looking to sign up for events. 

Best Practice

A good understanding of the Portal Events Widget is necessary to edit these portals.

Event Portal (with Tabs and Space Available)

The portal comes with configurations that will need to be edited after Suitcase Import.

Views 

This portal has a Default view (which houses static content and clickable tabs), an On-Campus Visits view (which houses the On-Campus Visits event widget and static text), and a Virtual Visits view (which houses the Virtual Visits event widget and static text). You can customize these views to be applicable to your needs and events.

  1. Configure the On-Campus Visits view: 

    • Under “Views,” select “On-Campus Visits”:
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    • Double click the events widget, On Campus Visits. 

    • Select the Event Selection tab and scroll down to Filters. Double click the existing “Folder” filter:
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    • Select the folders containing the events you’d like to display on this tab. You need to have created events (and assigned them to a folder) prior to this step:
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    • Click Save. 

    • You can make additional changes to the event widget under Event Format and Event Display, if desired. You can modify the display of Space Available for each event on the Event Selection tab. That process is outlined in Portal Events Widget. When done, click Save.

    • Double click the “On Campus Description” static text block. Replace the existing text with your desired text. Click Save.

  2. Configure the Virtual Visits view

    • Follow the breadcrumb links back to the portal. Under “Views,” select Virtual Visits.

    • Repeat the On-Campus Visits view steps for the Virtual Visits view, adjusting as necessary for the events and information you’d like displayed on this tab. 

  3. Configure the Default view

    • Under "Views", select Default

    • If you need to adjust the tabs that display, you can modify the tabs in the source code of the static content block, "View Switcher"

    • You can adjust the portal tabs, or add more tabs, as necessary to your process. 

    • Ensure you update any links, location, and social feed data for the static content block “Questions”, the weather widget, and the social media widget, in addition to the static text and pictures.
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Methods

This portal has three methods: Home, On-Campus Visits, and Virtual Visits, each tied to their respective views. These methods have actions (home, on-campus, and virtual) which are referenced in the source code of the View Switcher on the Default view to create tabs. No configuration of the methods is needed. 

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Custom CSS

This portal has custom CSS on it to allow the tabs, On Campus Visits and Virtual Visits, to be highlighted when hovering over them and to stay highlighted when they are selected

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That process, and the CSS you can use and edit to maintain parity with your institution’s branding, is documented in Styling Portal Tabs.

Event Portal #2 (with Tabs, Space Available, Reports and other features)

We offer another event portal that comes with additional functionality and features. The initial setup of this portal will be similar to the above portal and uses the same custom CSS to highlight tabs. This portal comes with configurations that will need to be edited after Suitcase Import. These additional configurations exist on this portal:  

Views

This portal comes with four views: Default (which contains only the navigation tabs), Information (the default page displaying information pertinent to the student’s visit), Schedule (for scheduling visits), and Contact Us (which displays contact information for a student’s assigned staff member). 

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  1. Navigate to the Default view and modify as needed

    • This view only contains the HTML for the navigation tabs within this portal. See the portal tabs documentation for information on configuring this view. 

  2. Navigate to the Information view 

    • This page can be altered to display any information you’d like your visitors to see when they first access the page. Except for the Visitor Origin Location report, all the content on this page is static and can be freely changed. 

    • To retain the existing report on this page, you will need to redesign/reconfigure the report. This is detailed below in the drop-down section, Reports.

  3. Navigate to the Schedule view

    • Configure the image and text you would like displayed on this tab by double-clicking the sections that contain them. 

    • Double-click on the Campus Tours event widget (“This part displays the Events widget.”). Within the Edit Part (Events) pop-up window, navigate to the Event Selection tab. Under Filters, double-click the existing Folder filter and select the folders containing the events you’d like displayed by this widget. 

    • You can make additional changes to the event widget under Event Format and Event Display, if desired. You can modify the display of Space Available for each event on the Event Selection tab. That process is outlined in Portal Events Widget. When done, click “Save.” 

    • Repeat the above two steps for the Virtual Campus Tours event widget on this view. 

    • Modify other widgets on this view: 

    • Double-click the “Social Media” widget to set its configuration. You can change this to show your institution’s Facebook or Twitter feed.  

    • Double-click the “Weather (3 Days)” widget to set its configuration. You can adjust the ZIP code and number of days’ forecast to be shown by this widget within its configuration.  

  4. Configure the Contact Us view 

    • This view recreates the Find Your Counselor custom portal. It is recommended to follow that documentation when configuring this view. 

    • Double-click the Description section to change the text displayed on this page. 

    • Double-click the Select School section to open the Edit Part (Form) window. Select the Find My Counselor form in the form select list (this would have been suitcased with this portal). 

    • Double-click the Counselor Content Block section.  Double click {{result.staff_user |block: “org-staff-assigned"}} and replace “org-staff-assigned" with the key of the content block you’d like to use. Please note, the form will return the username of the staff assigned, not their full name; you will need to configure your content block to accept username as a value. Review the documentation on Content Blocks for more information.  

    • Double-click the Additional Contact Information section. Add any additional information pertinent to contacting your institution. Be mindful of what information might already be displayed in your header and footer by your institutional branding.  

Methods

This portal has four methods: Contact Us, Information, Schedule, and Search Results, each tied to their respective views. These methods have actions (contact, info, schedule, and search) which are referenced in the source code of the View Switcher on the Default view to create tabs. No configuration of the methods is needed. 

Queries

This portal has a single query, titled Search Results, which works alongside the Search Results method and the Contact Us view to return the staff assigned to a particular organization.  

Review the Find My Counselor documentation and make the necessary changes for this query and the Contact Us View to function as desired within your portal. 

Reports 

The report included with this portal is configured to display a pie chart of the Rank 1 address on recent visitors’ records. To configure this report for your institution, follow the following steps: 

  1. Click “Visitor Origin Location” under Reports. 

  2. Double-click either header row under Parts to open the Report Editor. 

  3. In the top right corner of the Report Editor, click “Edit.”

  4. Double-click the Form / Folder filter to open the Edit Part pop-up. 

  5. Select all folders you’d like to report statistics on and click “Save.” 
    You can create and configure new reports within your Portal and display these on any view using the Report Widget.
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Additional Customizations

This portal can be updated in various ways, depending on your institution's decisions. Some possible customizations include:

  • Embedding welcome videos, music, or other interactive content

  • Adding pop-up views 

  • Using additional widgets on the portal, such as weather, social media, etc. 

  • Linking to additional resources or forms applicable to prospective students 

  • And more! 


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